Sherpao previously served as the Federal Interior Minister of Pakistan. He had earlier been the Federal Minister for Water and Power, Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas and States & Frontier Regions and Minister for Interprovincial Coordination. Sherpao has also served as the 14th and 18th Chief Minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Sherpao started his political career with Pakistan Peoples Party in 1975 after taking retirement from Pakistan Army on the advice of then Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after his elder brother Hayat Sherpao was assassinated in a bomb blast in Peshawar.[7]
He remained senior Vice-Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party from 1997 to 1999[6] and leader of Pakistan Peoples Party in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 1997 to 1999.[6][12]
In 1999, he developed differences with Benazir Bhutto.[7][8] It was reported that differences between Sherpao and Benazir Bhutto were cropped after the defeat of PPP in 1997 Pakistani general election. Benazir Bhutto suspected that Sherpao played a role over the dismissal of her government. Sherpao denied the claims.[8]
In 2002, he created his own faction, of Pakistan Peoples Party-Sherpao[8][13] and late 2002, was elected unopposed as the chairman of his own faction, Pakistan Peoples Party-Sherpao.[14]
He was re-elected to the National Assembly in Pakistani general election, 2002.[9] In November 2002, he was appointed as the Minister for Water and Power with the additional portfolio of Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination in the federal cabinet.[15] In December 2002, Sherpao was given additional charge of Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas and State of Frontier Region.[16][17]
In 2004, he was appointed as Minister for Interior in the federal cabinet.[18][19]
In April 2007, he was injured in a suicide attack in Charsadda after a suicide bomber blew himself in a political rally which killed at least 22 people.[26] It was the first attack on him.[5]
In December 2007, second assassination attempt was made when a suicide bomb blast targeted Sherpao which killed at least 57 in a mosque in Charsadda.[27]
In April 2015, Sherpao was targeted in a suicide attack in Charsadda for the third time. Sherpao survived the attack.[5]
^ ab"Detail Information". www.pildat.org. PILDAT. Archived from the original on 25 April 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)